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The headmistress of Epsom College was beaten by her husband shortly before he shot her and their seven-year-old daughter before turning the gun on himself, an inquest heard.
Emma Pattison and her daughter Lettie were found dead at their home in the grounds of the private boarding school in Surrey in February last year, alongside their husband and father George Pattison respectively.
An inquest previously heard Ms Pattison, 45, died from gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen on February 5, 2023, while Lettie was shot in the head.
The two men were allegedly murdered by Mr Pattison, a 39-year-old accountant, before committing suicide.
Evidence from Deborah Kirk, Mrs Pattison’s sister, was read out at the inquest at Surrey Coroners Court in Woking on Tuesday.
She said she received a phone call from her sister just before 11pm on February 4, telling her that her husband had hit her and their dog, Bella.
She said her sister told her, “I need someone to come.”
Her sister’s tone of voice expressed “concern, but not terror.” “It was more like she had assessed the situation and didn’t feel safe,” she said.
She said she and her husband, Mark Miller, took an Uber to her sister’s house just after 11 p.m.
“I tried calling Emma but still haven’t had an answer,” she said.
She added: “By the time we got to Emma’s house I started to get worried that she wasn’t answering her phone.”
When they arrived home, all the lights were on and cars were parked in the driveway. Her husband entered the house before her, then stopped her from going any further once she was inside.
“He said don’t go in there, don’t go in there, we’re going outside,” she said.
Her husband called an ambulance and paramedics arrived at the scene shortly after.
Paying tribute to her sister, Ms Kirk described the principal as “lightness itself”, adding that she was “intelligent” and kind in a way that “fills a room” and “drives change”.
She described her niece, Lettie, as “very intelligent, curious and disarmingly kind.”
Recalling how she would comfort her when she was sad, she said: “I would hold her and say, ‘Yeah, it’s hard being seven, isn’t it monkey?'”
Ms Kirk said she was still trying to forgive Mr Pattison.
“I can only speak for myself when I say I’m trying to forgive you,” she said. “I can only imagine what an extraordinary hell you were in.”
The inquest heard Ms Pattison had been watching rugby with friends in the hours before her death, and had ordered a Chinese takeaway at 9.36pm after her friends had left.
In evidence read to the court by the coroner, the delivery woman said: “She had a smiling face and appeared to be doing well.”
The inquest heard that an autopsy report found Mr Pattison’s cause of death was a gunshot wound.
She also found that the causes of death for Ms Pattison and Lettie were gunshot wounds.
A toxicology report found Mr Pattinson had 243 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, an amount associated with a “high to extreme” level of intoxication.
The investigation is continuing.
